Joseph Tardif likes to sit on an old green metal chair by his hives and watch the honeybees at least two or three times a day.

A beekeeper for more than 50 years, the South Dartmouth resident said he has traveled the entire Northeast, carrying hives to pollinate farms, orchards and cranberry bogs. He said he had more than 350 hives and 13 apiary sites at the peak of his summer business.

"I went everywhere in the region, except Maine," said the retired teacher, 77, who now has eight hives in his backyard.

Tardif is well-known as an expert among local beekeepers, a close-knit group that has been increasing in numbers.

"Beekeeping is a growing hobby," said Norma York, 76, president of the Bristol County Beekeeper's Association, with 130 current members. "Not only because people are waking up to the fact that if you don't have bees you're not going to eat but because of the decline in bee population over the last 10-15 years."

The European honeybee, brought to the United States in the 1600s, is the country's most important bee for crop pollination and honey production, according to James E. Tew, an associate professor of entomology at Ohio State.

An estimated one-third of all food and beverages are made possible by pollination, mainly by honeybees. In the United States, pollination contributes to producing crops worth $20 billion to $30 billion annually, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

There are 20,000 species of bees worldwide, 700 in the Northeastern United States alone, according to a researcher at Penn State University.

The danger of a decline in honeybees due to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a mysterious phenomenon causing adult bees to leave the hive, has made national headlines in recent years. Last winter, nearly a quarter of managed honeybee colonies in the United States died, according to a USDA report published in May. Although less of a loss than the previous year, the report pointed out multiple factors that play a role in the decline, including parasites and disease, genetics, poor nutrition and pesticide exposure.

Although CCD has been responsible for the widespread loss of honeybee colonies since 2006, it is not a concern on SouthCoast, according to James Corven, professor of Sustainable Agriculture at Bristol Community College. He said CCD is mostly associated with large-scale operations and pesticide use and is nonexistent in the Northeast. The varroa mite, imported from Asia about 20 years ago, is a much bigger concern, Corven said.

Honeybees have been declining in the Northeast because people are leaving agriculture and because there just aren't as many large farms and commercial colonies as in the Midwest. Climate change is also a concern, said Corven, who teaches a beekeeping course at BCC that has grown from about a dozen students when it started six years ago to 26 last year.

"A lot of our students don't come from farming backgrounds but are interested in growing food or gardening. We want to help them be informed and successful," Corven said.

On a recent sunny Saturday, Lucy Tabit of Westport carefully opened up the hives she manages at the Marion Institute's Round The Bend Farm in South Dartmouth. She sprinkled powdered sugar over the frames and gently brushed the white powder through the gaps to cover the bees. That's not to feed them but to manage the parasitic varroa mite that lives on bees, drinking their blood, eventually weakening and killing them. The powdered sugar on their bodies forces the bees to groom themselves which in turn causes them to brush the mites off their bodies, she said.

"Just don't use a horsehair brush. The bees don't like that," said Wayne Andrews, a master beekeeper and retiree of the Bristol County Mosquito Control project. Andrews worked alongside Tabit, smoking the hives with a small metal container to pacify the bees.

More than 40 people gathered there, learning and sharing beekeeping tips. It was one of the monthly workshops conducted by the County Beekeepers Association. Members said they found bees both fascinating and relaxing.

"I just love it, that's all. And they are a lot easier to maintain than crops," said Carol Constantine of Westport, who has been keeping bees for four years.

"It's different and pretty laid back. It's not like keeping chickens," said Gabriele Zybarth of Westport, who is interested in the wax and the honey.

Thirteen-year-old Sadie Brown said she persuaded her parents to keep three hives at their Berkley home three years ago.

"I like insects in general. It's cool to see the bees inside the hives," she said.

Her mother Jessica Brown said they even attended the bee school the association hosts at Bristol County Agricultural High School "because she was so enthusiastic."

"There's always something nice to learn and it's fun to go out in the garden to see your own bees," she said.

Some members said they got into bee-keeping after reading about the declining bee population and the danger that spells for agriculture.

"If you like agriculture but don't like gardening, beekeeping is the way to go," said Jan Thomson.

York, a beekeeper for 35 years, said she likes that all beekeepers works toward the same goal.

"Everyone's searching for an answer. There are no prejudices in beekeeping. It's all for one and one for all," she said. "I like the camaraderie of the beekeepers and their efforts to try to solve this epidemic."

Local beekeepers say it's a hobby that's "engrossing," "calming" and "fascinating." Some of them even cited health benefits.

Tardif said he first got into beekeeping to cure an ulcer — and it worked. "Now it's "something that's become a part of me."

"Beekeeping is a hobby that engrosses people and takes their minds off work. Bee fever is real," he said.

Manuel Borges of Assonet said he started keeping bees in the 1960s when his lungs got congested because of pesticide use and he was told to start having raw honey every day.

"I got hooked," he said, adding that beekeeping is something more people should strive to do.

"We have a saying, 'Once honeybees disappear, man is not far behind,'" he said.

AT A GLANCE

There are 3,500 species in the U.S.

Apis mellifera is most common in America - it has 24 races.

Honey comes in different flavors and colors depending on the flowers where the bee drinks.